20/09/2012

When i heard Nuclear
Fröst for the first time, i imagined myself drinking beer in some
place of Sweden, maybe Gothenburg, and the weather was enough to let
it frozen... Their sound is noisy, dark and can lead us to other
places. Founded in São Paulo, the necropolis cosmopolitan of Brazil,
they appear full of 80s references, from d-beat/crust to black metal
and thrash, a woman on vocals, political lyrics and a metal-punk
bias. This interview was made
with Thomas, the jawbreaker drummer that had the patience to answer
my idiot questions.

Shortly
after this interview, Edu (bass) left the band

Interview,
translation and introduction by Alan Miséria

1
- When entering the studio do you set the air conditioner at the
lowest level possible to try to simulate the thermal sensation of the
Scandinavian countries?

Thomas:
Sure... lol, if its not this way, theres no fun... but this thing of
a band from a tropical country has the word “frost”, just show
how people can achieve a level of love for a musical style, which in
the case of NxF, we've always been paxionated by the swedish
oldschool hardcore, the band just exist because of Svart Parad, Anti
Cimex, Shitlickers and Crude SS, they always were, and always gonna
be the biggest influences for us. Music has this power of mess with
paradigms, this way we can say, it is like a person that never came
to Brazil or has no connection with the country but loves Bossa Nova!
I particularly
think that bossa nova is just a crap, but music has this power.

2
- I saw a video with Feijão (Guitar) talking about vegetarian food,
what is the position of the band concerning it? Someone told me that
you sell pies made ​​with human flesh (allusion
to a murder case in Brazil where tree people were arrested accused of
making pies with meat of humans) saying
that it were completely vegetarian, the band will go into decline now
that I denounced the scheme of wild capitalist cannibalism?

Thomas:
hehehehe... shit man, you just ruinned my chance of becoming rich. I
Think that the big part of humanity wouldn't serve to this, if bovine
meat causes a lot of diseases, imagine the human one, but well
thinking... if there is people that goes to Mc Donalds, eat human
meat its not só bad.

Feijão,
that you mentioned, is vegan, it has some time, he lives in a inner
city, he and his partnership are militants agaisn't the animal
abuse, they organize protests, lectures, they are extremely active on
this cause and became reference for this topic in the city, só thats
the reason of this video.

Me
and Gaby (vocalist) are vegetarians, already for some years, Edu
(bassist) eats meat. We have a song named “Stop Animal Abuse”
which talks about this posture that the big part of the band follows

3
- Nuclear Frost appeared in 2006 in Sao Paulo, is it? Can you talk a
little about the band's inception? It is true that at first you would
make a more industrial sound?

Thomas:
Yes, Nuclear Frost begun in 2006, when Edu and me wanted to start a
project, at that time Edu was playing with ROT (Grind Masters), at a
first moment it would be a project, we want to make something with a
experimental bias, like Ministry, Einstuerzende Neubauten , but Edu
quit playing with ROT, só we changed the music style to become a
band, this way it's easier to play live. So we called Gaby to be the
vocalist, and we faced some problems to find a guitarrist, but soon
we found a commarade called Fred (Bahia), that helped us a lot, and
with this line up we started to play at gigs and recorded our demos
“Dbeat War 83/Winter Bomb”, with the output of Fred, we stayed
some time without a guitar player, we did some shows, just with
guitar/drums/vocal, we recorded some stuff where Edu played guitar
and bass, didn't took to much time to Feijão start playing with us
in 2008, and gave a pace that we seek to the band, we had a sequence
of concerts and compositions .

4
- Which bands that have or had women in the line up do you like? I
don't know any current band that has women and make a sound similar
to the Nuclear Frost ... do you know?

Nowadays
has Post Atomic Dogs which is a new band, Carol and her band mates
are doing great stuff, this band deserves to be heard.

5
- In the split with Retaliador you put sounds that were recorded live
in Minas Gerais (brazilian southeast state), you played down the
viaduct Santa Teresa, how was the recording and presentation of the
band on this day, and how did the idea of the split with Retaliador
emerged?

Thomas:
This gig really happened beneath the overpass of Santa Tereza (Belo
Horizonte, capital of Minas Gerais), it was organized by our Belo
Horizonte's friends, play in “Minas” is always great for NxFx, we
really like mates from that place, they know how to receive people in
the best way that is possible. The show at that time was planned to
be released as a DVD, with the recording of all the bands that played
on the event, like Barrikada, Filhos da Desgraça, Expurgo and
others, but at the end of the gig the guy that filmed the whole stuff
disappeared and just the audio remained, só, how we already wanted
to make a split with Retalidor, this was the oportunity, guys from
Realiador are our brothers, their sound is awsome, they are
extremely honest and truthful in what they do, and this split only
served to crown all this feeling. It was a totally DIY release on
Cd-r with a Ep 7 ' cape.

6
- From what I've observed, you have a good public acceptance abroad,
much of the time I tried to download Nuclear Frost material, were
from foreign pages, do you know the motive of this?

Thomas:
I hope this is really happening, I think this is due to the 4Way that
was released in Italy, and the CD "Nuclear Winter Gloom"
released in three different countries, Peru, Mexico and Spain, K7
tape in Thailand. I think that helped to spread the name, I hope it
stays that way, because we want to tour in other countries ...

7
- Apart from the musical references, what most influences Nuclear
Frost?

Thomas:
Many things ... Life in society is full of references for a band,
serves as a fuel to revolt, questioning, opposition on what is set
to default, and so on .... Running away from it a little bit, I think
that movies is a big influence, my favorite genres are Neo-realism of
the period of 60/70 (mostly Italian), Documentary, German
Expressionism, B Horror, Exploitation, Surrealism ...

8
- It's election year, Lula (ex president of Brasil and ex leftist)
made ​​accordance with Paulo Maluf (rightist corrupt politician
prohibited of enter in 180 countries and on the list of Interpol,
among other shits), Gilberto Kassab (current rightist São Paulo
mayor) is great! and the Toucans (nickname for the rightist party
that unfortunately always wins elections in São Paulo) are very
good! Now surely you believe that São Paulo is taking a correct
political direction, "right"?

Thomas:
lol... Your questions are the best ... lol ... The city of São Paulo
is a joke politically speaking, like Brazil, i guess that SP is the
biggest joke of all, because the state has PSDB (the toucans) on
government and is already 16 years on power, now as the mayor,
Kassab, total fascist, what can i say about a population that elects
a comedian (Tiririca - A clown elected as São Paulo Federal Deputy)
to "represent" the city where you live, the greater detail,
with the biggest number of votes in history.

The
Capitalist Democracy sucks in first world countries, imagine in a
third world country like Brazil, the city of São Paulo is just a
reflection of that, disorganized in all aspects, economic, social and
etc. .. Sells the capitalist dream, to have and to have more and more
and more, because this is the only way for you to be someone in life
... then you drops in the big problems of the world, which here in
Sao Paulo seems to be more chronic ...

9
- You participated in a 4 way split with Armagedom, both the split
with Retaliator as well as the "4 way split" were released
in 2009? The other bands on the "4 way" are from italy,
isn't it? How did the Nuclear Frost's participation in this record
happen?

Thomas:
In 2009 we participated in a 4Way with Armagedom, which for us was a
proud, be able to share this 4way with them, this 4way also has two
bands from Italy: Children Of Technology and Minkions, great bands,
especially guys from CxOxTx that are great people ... the invitation
happened through Myspace, the Astolf (CxOxTx) got in touch and talked
about the project, We are very grateful, thanks for the help ....
DeathLord Astolf Certainly helped spread the name of NxFx.

In
that same year, the band released a split with U.S. Secret Sect,
which took too long to come out, since it should be released in late
2008, most so far so good ... the shit was to know that Joey Cox
(Secret Sect drummer) that organized and released, with a circulation
of 1,000 copies, just sent 25 copies for us, the combined would be
100 copies, what can we say?

And
in 2010 we organized the split version on CD-R with our friends from
Retaliator.

10
- the band has a defined religious position? Evil tongues say that
you are evangelical zealots and use music to "entice" young
people to the church, it is true?

Thomas:
Our intention is kinda similar to the American Pastor Jim Jones for
his sect called "Peoples Temple", that was responsible for
the mass suicide in Guyana in 1978 ... This episode I mentioned is
only one of many cases that religious fanaticism can reach, NxFx is
a extremely anti religion band, especially the Christian, for all the
ills and genocides caused by this shitty religion. We are all
atheists thank God.

11
- What is the difference between the punk and the metal scene in São
Paulo? Do you see some difference beyond the musical style?

Thomas:
São Paulo's scene is disunited and too conservative, not saying
about all the people, there are people that takes it serious, support
the bands, but seeing the scene as a whole, disunity prevails …

The
punk scene which i can talk about is the Crust, Grind and stuff,
which is the scene that NxF usually plays. It's done by conscient
people, in a big part, but has a lot of posers, guys that want to
seem as if they were the best just because wear a t shirt from some
famous band, but they are really assholes, (nothing against any band)
they never went through bad times, in life or with a band, and wants
to have a band to show off, i think that many people are going to
read this and say “look what a sucker, asshole, Who does he think
he is? The saviour...” guess that sometimes people needs to be
humbler and pratice more what they talk and listen in the musics.

People
from São Paulo needs to learn with others scenes, i think that today
Rio de Janeiro has the best MetalPunk/Crust/Punk/Grind scene, i say
this because the last two times i went there i saw guys that wanted
to see the band, zines, show materials, drink with friends, talk...
things that doesn't happens in SP, it´s not commom to see things
like this here, just some times... i'll stop talking because i'm not
the owner of the truth... this is just my opinion...

12
- What is your opinion about Black Metal bands that has rightist
political views? Don't you think that they end up becoming a sort of
"gospel music of the devil"? In my view as Bakunin said on
God and the State (paraphrasing) "if God exists, then the devil
was the first free thinker in history" so he (the Guanxumão –
also known in portuguese as capeta, satanás or in english “satan”)
would have a libertarian bias, better than some kind of religious
facism, don't you think?

Thomas:
Tolally agree with what you said, the Black Metal emerged as way of
protest agaisn't the church and all its dogmas and conservatism, then
we have that thing, that we can say that begun with the second
generation of Black Metal bands, especifically from Norway, those
guys thought “we need to do something more fucked up than Venom,
Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, Bathory, Bulldozer... lets be Nazi Black
Metal band, or better, for people do not perceive, lets be a Nacional
Socialist Black Metal band (which is the same shit), because this way
we can draw more attention”. Man this is my opinion, i don't know
who is more idiot, the guy that appears with the idea or the others
that follows it.

Conservatism
does not match to Black Metal, in any way, but what can we do? The
guy shit and has a lot others to eat it, its hard...

13
– You just recorded your second full length álbum called
“Anti-Christ Anti-Nazi” that's gonna be released in vinyl, whats
the difference between the debut (Nuclear Winter Gloom) and this one?

Thomas:
I think that doesn't have much difference, in NxF until now we have a
music system and letters, which to be raw and direct, for example, we
don't like to record guitar twice, for two reasons, first because we
don't want to sound heavy, to sound like 80s recordings, and second
because the bass that Edu does fills ok, he plays almost all the
parts of the musics in power chords, with a lot of noise, it fills
enough spaces, and is the way we like.

14
- how many partnerships is needed to release an LP? What are the
difficulties of a band in Brazil to launch something like this? to
release a LP would be like Corinthians (brasilian soccer team that
took 102 years to win the most important soccer championship in latin
america) wins Libertadores?

Thomas:
NxF case, are us, the band, and more four labels: Terrotten/Extreme
Noise Discos – Absurd Records/ Corsário Discos and our friend
Fernando, summing Five labels, that are going to realize this
dream. i do not twist to the Corinthians... but its a similar feeling
winnig Libertadores after to much attempts, all the band members are
more or less 30 years old, so we have been on it for some time... i
it doesn't makes us more deserving than others, Who likes music,
punk/metal and stuff, when starts a band, dream about having its
material released in vinyl, there is no words to describe it, seems
forced what I'm talking about, but just us, and who is on our side
know how happy we are with this LP.

The
Polysom when came back to its ativities, people from the underground
stayed happy, thinking that it would be like before, but when saw
that their patterns was with a cult shit MPB/POP bias, with high
prices, we got disappointed... on the 2011/2012 passage, the prices
fell slightly (still expensive), the goal was more realistic, we
don't have prices to say to foreign people, but here in Brazil even
though expensive is not at a very high price. We hope that prices
fell more in next years.

15
- just to search here later, which bands have you listened recently?

Gaby
has listen to: Warripper in the morning. Anticimex in theAfternoon,
and Racionais MCs at night.

16
– So, that's it. Guess that something is missing, but here is the
space for you to say what you want, what you think thats important to
say and wasn't... thank you só much Nuclear Fröst!!!

Thomas:
Alan i Just like to thank you For the space here, thank you for the
interview and support, hope to see you soon, Who wants to get in
contact with Nuclear Frost, send email to nuclearfrost83@gmail.com
or my email thomasattack@yahoo.com.br,
we are going to release Just 300 copies of the LP
“AntiChrist/AntiNazi” If someone wants some copy, Just let us
know... DisCimexHammerVod!